Air India staff integration: Panel formed to examine measures to integrate staff

NEW DELHI: A fortnight after a committee submitted its report recommending various measures to integrate the 29,000-strong staff of merged Air India, a three-member panel has been formed to examine it and work out a time-frame for its implementation.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh set up the new panel and asked it to examine the recommendations of Justice Dharmadhikari Committee and prepare a schedule for their implementation in its report to be submitted by first week of March.

The Dharmadhikari Committee, which had submitted its report on January 31, had gone into all aspects of integrating the employees of the erstwhile state-owned airlines -- Air India and Indian Airlines.

Besides working out the principles of integration across various cadres and determining the levels and seniority, it had gone into several aspects including pay-scale rationalisation, restructuring and career progression.

The three-member committee now formed by the Minister would have Joint Secretaries in Civil Aviation Ministry and Department of Public Enterprises, Prashant Shukul and A K Sinha respectively, besides IFFCO's Director (HR) R P Singh.

The recommendations of the Dharmadhikari Committee report would come into force after this panel submits its report in the first week of March, an official spokesperson said.

A Group of Ministers on aviation, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had on February seven suggested that the Dharmadhikari committee recommendations should be examined by the first week of next month.